Toriyama brought anime to the Netherlands: ‘He made iconic characters’

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EPA Akira Toriyama in 1982

NOS Nieuws•vandaag, 14:28

• Annabel van Gestel

  editor Online

• Annabel van Gestel

  editor Online

His name will not immediately ring a bell for most Dutch people, but with the sudden death of Japanese Akira Toriyama, the manga and anime world loses one of its most important creators. The creator of the extremely popular comic and cartoon series Dragon Ball died earlier this month at the age of 68.

The news of his death hit Mariëlle Salh (29) hard. She has been big since she was young Dragon Ballfan and is part of the organization of the annual anime festival Abunai! “The message was shared this morning in our WhatsApp group. We were all in shock for a moment.”

Toriyama thought Dragon Ball in 1984 as a comic book series or manga, which became extremely popular in Japan. The cartoon series or anime that followed Dragon Ball Z, was broadcast in the Netherlands between 2000 and 2003 and put the genre on the map in the Netherlands.

Not familiar with anime or Dragon Ball? Check out the trailer of the latest series:

“I think Dragon Ball Z for many anime fans in the Netherlands, it is the first anime series they came into contact with,” says Salh. “It was also one of the few anime series that was broadcast in the Netherlands. So everyone who liked that genre watched it.”

The story of Dragon Ball revolves around main character Goku who must protect the world against all kinds of outside forces: from robots to aliens and gods. Salh: “It is a very exciting, compelling series. The episode often ended with a cliffhanger of a fight. Then the conversation at school the next day was whether you had seen the fight between Goku and Frieza.”

Stories with lots of action

Dragon Ball is a story that falls within the category ‘shonen manga’: stories with a lot of action and with boys in the leading roles. Yet the comics and cartoons also reach many girls. Nicolle Lamerichs, senior lecturer in Media Studies at Utrecht University of Applied Sciences and manga expert: “It is adventurous, colorful and often contains strong female characters. Shonen manga mainly focuses on action, but girls like that too.”

EPAMain character Son Goku from Dragon Ball

Lamerichs calls Toriyama one of the greatest anime creators of recent times. “He has Dragon Ball meant a lot to the genre. Films and series are still being made from it and it has also had a major cultural impact on the Netherlands.”

On the official one Dragon Ball-site, the studio writes that Toriyama still wanted to achieve a lot: “Fortunately, he left the world many titles. We hope that his unique creation will remain loved by everyone for a long time.”

Correspondent Anoma van der Veere in Japan:

“Toriyama has with Dragon Ball really created a separate world, comparable to Lord of the Rings in Star Wars. He was therefore enormously influential on an entire generation, including me. Dragon Ball is a franchise worth almost 10 billion euros. More than 50 million tickets have been sold for the films alone and the animated series has been broadcast in more than eighty countries.

How Toriyama wrote his stories is now the standard formula for many adventure stories. He has Captain America influence, Spiderman, Iron Man. His death is making waves here in Japan, but also worldwide. People especially thank him for all the iconic stories and characters he created.”

The fact that there is a large anime subculture in the Netherlands today is largely thanks to Toriyama, Salh also thinks. “His work has sparked worldwide interest in manga and I think we can see him as the founder of the Dutch anime subculture.”

Then in 2019 the movie Dragon Ball Super: Broly came out, even bumped it Bohemian Rhapsody from the throne as the most visited cinema film in the Netherlands. Salh: “That was a moment when I thought: wow, look how far we have come with anime in the Netherlands.”

A piece of youth has come to an end

Toriyama was also heavily involved in the latest cartoon series, Dragon Ball Daima, the first episodes of which will be broadcast next fall. It is unclear whether this will go ahead as planned. “This series really depends on him and his ideas around that world. He really had a unique style,” says Lamerichs. “He will live on through the many characters he developed.”

Sahl: “With manga and anime, the original creator always remains very closely involved. So it is exciting what will happen next. And it is a shame. It feels like a part of my youth is coming to an end.”